Austrian Phone Booths to Charge Cars
An Austrian phone company has unveiled plans to turn its phone booths into car charging stations.
Phone boxes are becoming increasingly useless. With so many smartphones on the market, there are many ways to communicate with people and these advanced devices driving the cost of 'dumbphones' down even further. With the price of cell phones falling so low, these days there's not a lot of people who rely heavily on public pay phones.
Telekom Austria appreciates that we no longer need phone booths like we used to and is rolling out some booths with added functionality: the ability to charge hybrid and electric cars. PhysOrg reports that although there aren't many electric cars on Austrian roads (just 223 electric and 3,559 hybrid cars are registered in Austria out of a total of 4.36 million vehicles), the Austrian motor vehicle association VOeC reckons there will be 405,000 electric and hybrid vehicles by 2020.
With that in mind, Telekom Austria is repurposing its 13,500 phone boxes around the country, turning them into recharging stations for electric cars, scooters and bikes. Speaking at the unveiling of the first phone box-cum-charging station, Telekom Austria chief HannesAmetsreiter said the aim is to convert 29 more phone boxes by the end of this year. No word on how much it'll cost to charge a car at one of these things.
*Image via Engadget
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Poor / paranoid people need a way to communicate too!
Will you hurry up with your car charging? Superman needs to change into his costume.
forget about the car, that beauty on the advertising will actually charge me!
Meh.We still need phone booths. Maybe not as many as we once had but they are still necessary. There will always be that one day where we are down in the city and you really need to get in touch with someone...and...you forgot your phone.
You know what I mean.
Meh.We still need phone booths. Maybe not as many as we once had but they are still necessary. There will always be that one day where we are down in the city and you really need to get in touch with someone...and...you forgot your phone.You know what I mean.
Yeap.
Pay phones are still needed.
I've only ever used them a handful of times, but it's always been because I needed too, and it would have sucked if there wasn't one.
Great Idea, hopefully you can still use the phone too.
I don't see the price of cell phones dropping, the price for service has been the same for several years and in fact, has gone up a little bit since I started using my cell phone. I'm just glad I got grandfathered in on my contract. Public phones will be useful for years to come, even if they are getting expensive to use.
Interesting concept providing you're near a phone booth charging station when you need to charge.
Of course converting pay phones inside buildings is not a good idea.
Pay phones are still needed. If nothing else they still need to be there with 911/emergancy access.
I totally imagined a phone booth charging at a car when I read the title!
im really impressed with australia on this matter. it's especially impressive that they foudn out a way to utilize an obsolete phone booth and transformed it into a charging station. now what would be even MORE impressive is if it could charge mobile devices as well! jut one more reason for me to visit there one day.
"box-cum-charging"
Ok... am I the only American to see this as funny?
im really impressed with australia on this matter. it's especially impressive that they foudn out a way to utilize an obsolete phone booth and transformed it into a charging station. now what would be even MORE impressive is if it could charge mobile devices as well! jut one more reason for me to visit there one day.
Really nice comment...except that it's not happening in Australia, it is happening in Austria.
I don't see the price of cell phones dropping, the price for service has been the same for several years and in fact, has gone up a little bit since I started using my cell phone. I'm just glad I got grandfathered in on my contract. Public phones will be useful for years to come, even if they are getting expensive to use.
seriously i remember paying $80 for 300min with nights/weekends not that long ago, and you could forget about unlimited data plans at the time
Where would superman change his clothes?!
"box-cum-charging"Ok... am I the only American to see this as funny?
nope, but you're probably the only one to admit it...
To make ppl buy electric cars you need to ashure them that they can charge the battery everywhere.
Today only mafia uses the Phone Booths
i agree. maybe they could limit charging for a few hours, enough range to get the car home.
Will you hurry up with your car charging? Superman needs to change into his costume.
This will be great for the drug dealer or mafioso who owns/stole and electric car.
Really nice comment...except that it's not happening in Australia, it is happening in Austria.
Hahah.. Totally reminded me of Jim Carey on Dumb and Dumber when he hopped in the back seat to talk to that Austrian woman.
So, no one has mentioned yet one little problem: it takes a long time to recharge batteries, right?
So, no one has mentioned yet one little problem: it takes a long time to recharge batteries, right?
arround 45min for a full charge iirc but you may only need a 10min charge to get you to where your going. And i've had to use payphones more for when I've forgotten to charge my phone then for when I've forgotten it at home... ocd if the phone isn't in my pocket I don't feel right walking out my door